Sports

Friday, Sept. 12, 1997

Eagles end pre-district with Greenwood games

Skip to next storyPECOS, Sept. 12 -- The pre-district volleyball schedule closes out for
the Pecos Eagles on Saturday, as does a stretch of two weeks worth of
matches on the road, when they travel to Greenwood to face the
Rangerettes and San Angelo Central Bobcats.

Pecos' varsity and freshman purple teams will face the Rangerettes and
Bobcats beginning at 2 p.m., with the Eagles seeking their second
straight dual meet sweep. They downed Greenwood's District 4-3A rival
Colorado City, along with Water Valley on Tuesday in a pair of matches
in Odessa.

"Offensively, we looked much better," said Eagles' coach Becky Granado,
after the wins lifted the Eagles' record to 10-6 on the season.
"LaCrisha (Molinar) and Annette (Marquez) still had some problems with
their sets, but they're both getting better. If we can correct that, our
hitters will be much better."

The Eagles and Bobcats have yet to meet this season, while this will be
the third time Pecos and Greenwood have faced each other in the past
three weeks. The Eagles held off five match points by the Rangerettes in
the championship game of the Pecos Cantaloupe Classic on Aug. 30 to
rally for a victory and claim their first tourament title in five
seasons, while Greenwood got a measure of revenge last Friday, sweeping
a pair of pool round matches at the Seminole Invitational.

Greenwood's Karen Gasch was able to hit over Pecos' blockers much of the
time, and Mandy Choat also put down several spikes, but Granado said
after Tuesday's wins, "Our blocking is coming around. I changed the
lineup to have Sherrie (Mosby) Lori (Marquez) and Shirhonda (Bell) up
there, and we looked tough."

Greenwood split their two matches on Tuesday, downing the Eagles'
District 4-4A rival Sweetwater, 15-4, 15-7, while falling to Midland
High, 15-6, 15-10. Central's wins on Tuesday were over Grandfalls,
15-11, 15-9, and Bronte, 15-4, 15-9, though the Bobcats, 11-4, did lose
to defending 4-4A champ San Angelo Lake View last Saturday, 6-15, 15-7,
15-3, to win the Bronte Invitational Tournament.

District play opens for the Eagles at home on Tuesday when they host
Andrews, which is where the Eagles' junior varsity will be this weekend,
competing in the Mustangs' JV tournament.

On Thursday, four of Pecos' eight junior high teams were in action, with
the Zavala seventh grade white team losing to Crane, 15-12, 15-7, while
the seventh grade green squad fell by 15-11, 15-9 scores. Crockett's
eighth grade black and white teams also fell to the Cranes, though
scores were unavailable.

Failed two-point try costly to Eagles' JV

Skip to next storyBy JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Sept. 12 -- The Pecos Eagles' junior varsity football team began
their 1997 season on a down note Thursday, dropping a 22-20 decision in
Alpine to the Bucks.

Two-point conversions proved to be the difference, as the Bucks made
their first two, building a 16-14 halftime lead after Pecos went up 8-0
on a three-yard run by Jacob Esparza.

But Alpine immediately tied the score, running the ensuing kickoff back
for a touchdown, then went up by eight before Fabien Tarango scored on a
20-yard pass from Derek Zubledia just before the half. The two earlier
hooked up on a two-point conversion, but the second two-point attempt
failed, as did the third, after Tarango returned a punt 55 yards for a
touchdown top cut the Bucks' 22-14 lead to 22-20.

"The defense played well. They didn't drive it on us very much. But we
had problems with our special teams," said Eagles' coach Jay Ragland,
who had eight members of the idle freshman team also playing on the
squad Thursday.

The freshmen and JV will both be in action next week against Monahans,
as will the Eagles' junior high squads, in their season openers.
Tonight, Pecos' varsity will be in Alpine to face the Bucks, in an 8
p.m. start.

The Eagles will be trying to go 2-0 on the season in their first
varsity game in Alpine in nearly two decades. It's also the first of
three straight games against District 3-3A schools for Pecos. They'll go
to Monahans next Friday to face the Loboes, who evened their record at
1-1 on Thursday with a 27-10 win at Lubbock High over the Westerners.

Four other District 4-4A teams will be trying to go 2-0 on the season
tonight, while the other, San Angelo Lake View, will seek its first win
against the team that Pecos defeated last week, Lamesa.

San Angelo (0-1) at Lamesa (0-1): Lake View looked like they had taken
a step back to the mid- to late-1980s in last week's 44-14 loss to
Kerrville Tivy. Those Chiefs teams could always move the ball, but they
couldn't stop the opposition from doing even better. Last week, Lake
View rolled up 385 yards in total offense, more than any other District
4-4A team, but gave up 421 to the Antlers, who were coming off a 3-7
season.

The team with the second-most yardage last week among 4-4A schools was
Pecos, with 378 against Lamesa. If the Chiefs' offense again has more
firepower than the Eagles this season, this could be a big night for
quarterback Alonzo Robinson, running back Kendall Jones and the rest of
the Chiefs. On the other hand, if Lake View's defense really is as
porous as they were a week ago, then the three Tornadoes' drives which
Pecos stopped inside the 25 could be touchdowns this week, and this
might be a close game.

Ballinger (1-0) at Big Spring (1-0): The Bearcats fared about as well
against Greenwood last week as the Eagles did against the Rangers in
their Aug. 29 scrimmage, so it will be interesting to see how Ballinger
does tonight against the Steers, who shut down Monahans in their season
opener.

Ballinger ran for nearly 275 yards in their 26-3 win, though it took an
Aaron Workman interception return late in the in the third period to
break things open. Big Spring's Antwoyne Edwards and Tory Mitchell both
hit the 100-yard mark in last week's 24-2 win, in a game the Steers'
didn't take control of until the final period. If Big Spring's line can
get their two backs running room, they'll probably equal their 1996
victory total tonight.

Sweetwater (1-0) at Snyder (0-1): Since the two Mustang squads
(Sweetwater and Andrews) are supposed to battle for the district title,
and since Andrews routed Snyder last Friday by a 42-0 score, this might
be an early measurement of how the two compare.

Then again, Sweetwater is coming up an emotional 21-17 win over
state-ranked Brownwood, and could be due for a bit of a letdown. They've
also won their last four games over Snyder, while Andrews was riding a
three-game losing streak to the Tigers until last week's victory. Snyder
will at least try to improve on their 26 yards rushing from a week ago.

Andrews (1-0) at Brownfield (0-1): Shaud Williams out-gained Snyder on
the ground by 185 yards all by himself, while scoring four times. The
only thing that might concern coach Mike Lebby is the rest of the team
managed just 23 yards combined in rushing and passing. But, so long as
Williams stays healthy, that shouldn't be too much of a concern due to
the defense, which in addition to stopping the run, held Snyder to
9-for-25 passing.

Brownfield lost their season opener to Class 2A rival Seagraves, 28-9.
to be fair, Seagraves does have a pair of 1,000 yard rushers back from
last season, but their combined total was about equal to Williams'
numbers in 1996, so the Cubs will have to hope their top back, Eugene
Reed, has a career night.

El Paso Ysleta (1-0) at Fort Stockton (1-0): The Panthers had a good
night last week just across the border from El Paso, routing Santa
Teresa, N.M. behind Jacob Vasquez' five touchdowns. They didn't have a
good night last year in El Paso, when the Panthers saw penalties wipe 21
points off the scoreboard in a 12-8 loss.

Ysleta managed to go 8-2 last season and still missed the playoffs,
which in the new Class 4A three-team playoff format is really tough to
do. The Indians won last year's game after barely beating El Paso
Cathedrial, but come into Fort Stockton tonight off a 44-2 win over
Cathedrial and with running back James Escalante, who is just about as
fast as Vasquez. That should be a better test for this year's Panther defense than Santa Teresa was.

But the way the Cowboys' starting linebacker has been limping around the
dressing room at Valley Ranch with a huge wrap around his right knee, he
doesn't look like someone who could play an NFL game by then.

``The knee feels real sore,'' Strickland said Thursday. ``It's just a
question of whether I can get enough swelling out of the knee so I can
get some mobility.''

Strickland's play at middle linebacker has been instrumental in the
Cowboys surprising rise to be the top-rated defense in the league, and
Dallas needs him to stop Philadelphia and the hard-running Ricky
Watters.

Strickland sprained the posterior cruciate ligament in the knee during a
25-22 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday night.

Coach Barry Switzer said Strickland is ``doubtful, a 50-50 chance to
play.''

``Fred had a great season for us last year,'' Switzer said. ``It
definitely will affect us losing an experienced player like him.''

Enter 10-year veteran Vinson Smith, who played for the Chicago Bears
last year after a previous stint in Dallas. Smith has been an outside
linebacker. He was worked at middle linebacker some in training camp
this year.

If called upon, ``I'll be ready,'' Smith said. ``I'll give it my best
shot.''

One of the reasons the Cowboys are top-ranked in the NFL is their
ability to stop the run, which was expected to be a weak point this
season with the loss of linebacker Darrin Smith and the suspension of
Leon Lett.

Dallas is ranked third against the run and fifth against the pass.
Dallas has allowed only 75 yards rushing per game.

``All I heard in training camp was how bad we were supposed to be on
defense,'' said rookie linebacker Dexter Coakley. ``I think we've played
pretty good. Losing Fred would hurt because of his experience. We were
getting a nice flow going. He kinds of keeps things together out there
in the middle.''

Philadelphia quarterback Ty Detmer said he has noticed a change in the
Dallas defense.

``They have different people,'' Detmer said. ``They don't have Leon Lett
and Charles Haley and they are making up for it by being more
aggressive. They're blitzing a little more now than they used to.''

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